Complimenting a Green Thumb

Wingard’s Market adds a greenhouse to further improve their customers’ experiences

By ABE DANAHER » Photos by ALISON MOONS

Since Wally Steinhauser and his wife Delores bought Wingard’s Market from Delores’ parents, they have worked toward creating the ultimate customer experience. Piece by piece they added to Wingard’s – first a gift shop, then a fresh produce market, next a wild bird business – in an effort to grow the 52-year-old family business and improve their customers’ experiences there.

And now, with a state of the art greenhouse from Stuppy opening this spring, they feel they have found the missing piece to their business’ puzzle.

“Greenhouses kind of mark the arrival, if you will,” Wally says. “You can have trees and shrubs and other things outside, but once you have a greenhouse it’s a statement. And particularly one as advanced as this.”

Wingard’s Market’s greenhouse is not your typical growing greenhouse. With a weather system on its roof and some of the most advanced technology available, their retail greenhouse regulates its own temperature by opening its roof, adjusting its shade cloths and raising its sides.

“This greenhouse is smarter than we are,” Wally says through a chuckle.

Wally and Delores had considered adding a greenhouse to Wingard’s for many years, but were very particular about the greenhouse they desired. They wanted one with a high roof line, over 3,000 square feet of floor space, and no center posts in the middle. Finally, this past year, they found one that fit what they were looking for and by Labor Day they had broken ground on its construction.

With its completion this February, the Steinhausers are excited to see their patience pay off. Customers will now have a more diverse offering of plants, especially house plants, and will have a better buying experience because of the open space the greenhouse provides.

“I always think about the customer experience from the time they have the idea to come here―because we are a destination―until the time they get home and take whatever they purchased and put it in their yard or house,” Wally says. “My idea of that experience is to make things easier to find, to be helpful, to be nice, and offer the benefit of over the hundreds of years of cumulative experience that our folks have.”

He loves that Wingard’s has become a part of the surrounding Lexington community, and he’s proud to offer his community the best products – now supported by the best technology.

“I want people to have a great feeling when they decide to come here and I want them to have a better feeling when they leave and come back again,” he says. “Because it’s much easier to keep a satisfied customer than it is to find a new customer. And we are fortunate that we have very loyal customers.” 803-359-9091, wingardsmarket.com